I liked the look of the monster making Ember when it first appeared on Kickstarter. That promising campaign was pulled but the good news is that Ember has relaunched and is back on Kickstarter. Geek Native reached out to District 31 to ask why. You can see the current progress here.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1118172895/ember-the-magical-card-game
Ember is asking for £5,000 to fund and at the time of writing has just over half of that with half the time remaining on the clock.
A backing of £13 gets the core game and if you want two then there’s a discounted tier at £25.
So, why did the first Ember get snuffed out? The answer is solo play. This new version of the game lets you be an apprentice wizard, by yourself, pulling creatures out of elemental fire.
The path to solo play seems like one rife with drama and frustration. When Geek Native asked District 31’s Stuart Garside about the relaunch, pestering for a comment, this is what we got;
There’s nothing worse than spending 6 months working on a multiplayer game for someone to ask on the very hour of your Kickstarter release: Why doesn’t this game offer solo play?
…
Because it’s a multiplayer group game. That’s why.
Sadly, no one picked up on my telepathic indignation, because, as the hours progressed, more and more people wanted a solo mode for Ember.
Maybe that’s why the first campaign didn’t do nearly as well as I would have hoped, so I cancelled it (rather than face the horror of seeing the time run out and still not having funded).
I picked myself up, put the campaign in a box and gave it a burial in the garden (next to Francis the dwarf hamster – RIP little guy) and vowed to come back fighting, which basically means I spent a load of money on campaign art and worked out a solo mode.
After a month of faffing and more paper cuts than a Hallmark worker falling into the card finishing machine, I worked it out. Maybe. At least I hope I worked it out!
So, Ember now features conjuring monsters and magic and a game everyone can play with their kids as well as with your gaming mates. AND now you have solo play.
The campaign re-launched, and with it comes three long weeks of watching the funding goal rise and fall on an hourly basis. You pretend not to care, but you’re forever going back to your emails to see whether there are any new pledges.
I even check my emails a second after I’ve just checked my emails. You know, just in case!
I’ve backed Ember and now, when I play, I’ll think about Francis the dwarf hamster.
